Our immersive approach to creating the future has been embraced around the world! Join us for this one-of-a-kind, interactive and project-based program that empowers participants with the critical skills of Strategic Foresight and Futures Thinking for a new era of complexity and change.

1. Learn Foresight!
An Introduction to The Futures School
Our immersive approach to
creating the future has been embraced around the world!
February 26, 2015

2. www.thefuturesschool.com

3. Today’s
business
leaders
must
remain
focused
on
what’s
next.
In
order
to
gain
greater
visibility
about
the
future,
what
is
needed
is
not
a
better
crystal
ball,
but
rather
an
instrument
for
building
resilience,
adaptability
and
opportunity
through
recognition
of
emerging
patterns.
Futures
Thinking
is
that
instrument.
Strategic
Foresight
provides
the
framework.

4. Future
planning
in
our
current
volatile,
uncertain,
complex,
and
ambiguous
environment
requires
us
to
leverage
both
quantitative
and
qualitative
approaches.
Strategic
Foresight
recognizes
that
the
future
cannot
be
predicted
but
it
can
be
mapped.

5. It
is
no
longer
enough
to
extrapolate
historical
data
forward
to
create
an
official,
linear
future.
Effective
long-­‐term
planning
must
consider
multiple
future
operating
environments
in
order
to
ensure
strategy
is
resilient,
adaptive
and
transformative.

6. Strategic
Foresight
is
a
discipline
but
is
actually
best
served
as
an
integrated
philosophy.
Organizations
that
intentionally
develop
a
futures
culture
are
primed
for
market-­‐leading
innovation,
successful
opportunity
development,
and
revenue-­‐generating
futures
intelligence.

7. Most
organizations
focus
solely
on
the
Push
of
the
Future
which
represents
the
trends
and
emerging
issues
that
are
pushing
us
into
the
future
regardless
of
what
we
do.
Conversely,
the
Pull
of
the
Future
represents
our
ability
to
identify
and
create
our
preferred
futures.
Strategic
Foresight
allows
us
to
leverage
both
ends
of
the
futures
spectrum:
the
“Push”
and
the
“Pull.”
Push of
the
Future
Pull
of the
Future

8. Challenge
Assumptions
Scan to Uncover
Hidden Opportunities
ExploreDiscover
Design and Execute
Action Plans
Create
Develop Future
Scenarios
Map
Natural
Foresight
is
an
action-­‐based
approach
to
building
a
futures
thinking
competency.
Organized
in
an
adaptive,
resilient
and
transformative
approach
that
has
been
successfully
implemented
in
large,
multinational
firms,
Natural
Foresight
includes
foresight
tools
such
as
environmental
scanning,
assumption
and
bias
modeling
and
scenario
development.

9. Challenge
Assumptions
Discover
Today’s
environment
of
accelerating
volatility
and
exponential
change
is
disrupting
paradigms
in
every
domain.
However,
our
deeply
engrained
biases
and
assumptions
prevent
us
from
recognizing
these
disruptions
and
taking
action
to
capitalize
on
them.
Strategic
Foresight
helps
us
to
look
past
our
present-­‐day
models
and
ideas,
acting
as
the
most
effective
way
to
recognize
disruptors
on
the
horizon
of
business
and
society.

10. External
scanning
and
trend
analysis
in
the
macro
(Social,
Technological,
Economic,
Environmental,
and
Political)
environment
is
a
necessity
–
future
disruptors,
competitors
and
opportunities
will
most
likely
originate
from
outside
your
industry.
Strategic
Foresight
works
from
the
outside-­‐
in,
providing
the
tools
to
slay
the
data
tsunami
and
identify
the
weak
signals
on
the
horizon.
Scan to
Uncover Hidden
Opportunities
Explore

11. Develop Future
Scenarios
Map Scenarios
are
an
incredibly
powerful
tool
due
to
their
ability
to
immerse
organizations
into
future
probabilities,
possibilities,
and
aspirational
outcomes.
These
well-­‐informed
maps
allow
firms
to
assess
the
validity,
robustness
and
future-­‐
readiness
of
their
current
strategies,
while
also
uncovering
new
ideas,
products,
and
models
that
they
would
have
otherwise
missed.

12. Design and
Execute Action
Plans
Create It’s
not
enough
to
build
strategy,
innovate,
map
out
organizational
development
or
“look
into
the
future”
without
successfully
acting
upon
all
of
that
hard
work.
Organizations
must
build
both
short
and
long-­‐range
action
plans
and
deliverables
to
help
implement
innovation
and
preferred
future
outcomes.

13. Context and Background Futures Intelligence
World Building Strategy Recommendations
• Unconscious Bias
Modeling
• Ladder of Inference
• Causal Layered
Analysis
Explore personal and organizational
assumptions around the focal issue.
Sample Tools:
Discover and interpret the emerging
trends, patterns and clusters.
• Environmental Scanning
• Qualitative Predictive Analysis
• Probability/ Impact Matrix
• Pattern and Sensemaking
Sample Tools:
Create sets of divergent, provocative maps using
creativity, data, intuition, and research.
• Scenario Fields
• Cross Impact Matrix
• Narrative Transformation
• Futures Wheels
• Design Fiction
Sample Tools:
Inform long-range planning efforts, inspire
innovation and begin creating the future today!
• Backcasting
• Artifacting the Future
• Sign Posts
• Scenario Commonalities
• Scenario/Strategy Matrix
Sample Tools:

14. We help our clients:
• Uncover emerging trends and issues that will
impact their business.
• Discover unseen opportunities for strategic
development and advantage.
• Thrive in a world of complex ideas and
practices.
Kedge is a minority-owned,
global foresight, innovation and
strategic design firm.
TFS is a one-of-a-kind, interactive and
project-based training program.
Program participants will:
• Identify emerging trends and weak signals on
the horizon.
• Build "maps of the future" that generate
successful strategies, actions and
organizational narratives.
• Harness the future to make better decisions
today.
www.KedgeFutures.com
www.TheFuturesSchool.com
Next Session:
May 5-7, 2015
info@KedgeFutures.com
info@TheFuturesSchool.com